curiously_cora | (no subject)

There was one excitable puppy running around the Homestead in its newly changed state. There was one haughty black cat, licking the face of it's human and purring contently before settling on her pillow close to her in a black bundle of fur. And there was one teenage girl sleeping in her bedroom as if nothing had happened. She looked... terrible. Pale and sunken, a little hollowed out. More than a little worse for wear but she wouldn't stay at the clinic, she had wanted to go home.

She stirred, making a face before rolling over. One eye opening to stare at Cat before reaching across to tap her nose against his cold wet one. Smiling tiredly she wriggled her fingers free before scratching the top of his head. Coraline smiled as he miaowed loudly at her and at the room in general as if to make sure everyone knew she was awake.

"Missed you too WussPuss," Coraline said, sitting up before tugging Cat into her arms and hugging him. Padding out into the hall, she smiled at the strange new Homestead and everything that had changed. She had been gone, now she was home again. The island had been here now it was somewhere else. "Hello? Is anyone home?"

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"Um, I didn't go anywhere exactly." Coraline said making a face but turning her head up to the kiss at her temple. She had seen whilst she had been away what it was like to be missing, what it was like to be missed and she had finally found that people did miss her, did actually care. "I was still here, it was just no one could see me? I sort of found an object when I was exploring and I might have... touched it."

Danny only holds her in tighter when she makes the face, unwilling to give her up -- not now that he has her. "So, what? All that time that we were out there and looking for you, what? You could see us? You just couldn't shout at us? How'd you manage to get back?"

"Oh, no I shouted at you and everyone but no one could hear me and I couldn't touch anything either." Coraline said, hugging Danny as Cat ran into his legs and told him in Cat's terms that he had to share his human. "Mister Parker and some others helped me, they found the object- the artefact and put it back together. And then I came back."

"I'm glad you did, kiddo," Danny says, sincere and his voice tinged with emotion. He brushes a fond kiss to her cheek. After everything else that he's lost lately, he's not sure that he could cope with Coraline vanishing from him, too. "Hey, how about I treat you to something? Dinner or ice cream, maybe?"

"Me too," Coraline said hugging Danny tightly. She smiled when he kissed her cheek, scrunching up her nose a little before she turned around and pressed one right back on his. "I made a promise though Danny, I promised not to leave the island and that's what I intend to do. Never leave."

Coraline made a face, looking at him curiously before peeking outside. She wasn't quite sure where they were yet but she really did want to explore. "I'm too big for a piggy back aren't I? Is there somewhere close? I'm not sure where we are yet."

"Maybe sometime when I'm not...you know," Danny says, gesturing to his torso. The cold weather's been making it a little harder to heal and with Halloween, his stitches are fresh again. "How about we take a raincheck and when I feel better, you can piggyback anywhere you like."

"Then let's stay here then, in the warm and you can tell me where we are. It's not the island or has it changed again?" Coraline said, letting go from where she was hugging Danny tightly. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Nah, no, you didn't," Danny says, even though it's twinging a little. It's only a little and it's not enough to worry her with. "And I think it's the island, I just think we got a little trip to New York City," he says with a small smile. "Which means you and I can find a nice little restaurant, you and I."

"Okay but if I do, then you have to tell me Daddy." Coraline said being careful this time when she hugged him. She yawned, rubbing her face before peeking outside the window. "New York? Really? I've been New York but only once, I didn't get to see much of it. Oh, do they have um the subway here? I'd like to ride on that and the Empire state building and- and the park. And the theatre. There's so much to explore."

He softens at the 'Daddy' and that's never not going to make him feel like a million bucks. He leans in to press a kiss to Coraline's cheek. "How about we make a calendar and we'll go out whenever you want. I owe you that much."

"Okay, we can do that then. Can Johnny come too? If he's not mad at me or anything I mean," Coraline said, smiling at the kiss to her cheek.

"Yeah, if Johnny's not too mad, he can come too. And, you know," he continues with a bemused look on his face. "If he's not too scared of me."

"Why would he be scared of you?" Coraline asked confused before making a face at Danny. Coraline might have been missing, she might have been homesick and missing Danny and loving him lots but she still made the unimpressed teenaged daughter face at him. "What have you been saying to Johnny?"

"I have said nothing to the boy," Danny swears, hands up in the air. "I only implied that I'm very protective of you because I love you. And, you know, whether he's scared of Steve's guns is up to him."

"Good because he's really sweet," Coraline said, not adding that Johnny probably freaked out more about their impending ages and changing relationship and growing up than Coraline was. Mostly. Coraline could at least mostly handle it, usually she just asked questions until the freaking out went away. "Daddy that's not very nice. Did you say that Steve has guns casually? Because that still counts as saying something."

"I didn't do anything. Steve was being Steve and I can't change that. It's a part of life, like the sun rising in the morning and spam being a disgusting food type," Danny informs her with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You could tell him not to be Steve or not to be so Steve like around Johnny. He's not going to hurt me, he's Johnny. That would be like spam being an edible delicacy." Coraline replied making a face at the shrug of his shoulders. "Be nice daddy."

"I'm not nice," Danny contradicts, even though he has his moments. "I am not a nice person. Niceness does not become me." But he figures he ought to at least try, for Coraline's sake.

"Yes, you are. You say you're not but you are mostly. You're nice to me, so you can be nice to Johnny." Coraline said making a face at Danny before she wrapped her arms around his middle and squished him in a hug.